Despite taking steps against corruption, more and more Nepali government officials take kickbacks, including those in charge of fighting graft. Nepal is third most corrupt country in South Asia, the 15th in the world. “The figures show that the government is totally indifferent to the problem.”
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) – According to the Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Nepal is third most corrupt South Asian nation before Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the 15th in the world.
Compared to last year, Nepal lost four positions in the world ranking, and is now in the 130th position with 27 out of 100 points. In South Asia, the best country is Bhutan with 65 points, followed by India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Rising corruption in Nepal can largely be blamed on civil servants abusing their position for personal gain, this according to Bharat Bahadur Thapa, president of Ti-Nepal, Transparency International Nepal.
Despite taking steps against corruption, more and more Nepali officials take kickbacks, including those in charge of fighting graft. Nepal is third most corrupt country in South Asia, the 15th in the world. “The figures show that the government is totally indifferent to the problem.”
“Data show that the actions taken against civil servants abusing their office have been very weak,” he explained. “This indicates that, even among those who are supposed to control, there is a very high tendency to abuse power."
The awful situation, Thapa added, is a sign “that the government is totally indifferent to the problem of fighting corruption. Its pledge of zero tolerance in these cases was just window dressing."
Before May 2013, the alarming figures on government corruption were attributed to the lack of a monitoring agency, as provided by the constitution.
Yet, despite the creation of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), things have not improved.
In fact, the Commission itself has become embroiled in a number of scandals, as some of its members were caught taking bribes. It also turns out that officers were overzealous in bringing charges so that they could pursue personal gain.